A radio packet data system includes an access network (AN), a plurality of access terminals (AT), and the air interface defined between the two. The AN may further comprise a plurality of base stations or sectors, each of the base stations/sectors having an associated radio “footprint” that covers a certain geographical area, which may overlap with those of neighboring base stations/sectors. Radio resources are allocated to ATs based on the signal conditions that the ATs experience, requirements of the ATs, and other factors.
Resource allocation is closely linked to the specific multiple access technique used by the access terminals and the access network which defines their interface. As the generations of radio communication systems have evolved 1G→2G→3G→), different multiple access techniques have been explored and adopted. Generally, these access techniques have been divided into three general categories including: frequency division multiple access (FDMA) used in first generation (1G) cellular systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) used in second generation (2G) cellular systems, and code division multiple access (CDMA) used in third generation (3G) cellular systems. In general, a multiple access technique defines how multiple users access a common communications resource, which in a radio communications context, usually includes radio bandwidth.
There are several potential multiple access techniques for fourth generation (4G) cellular systems including direct spread-code division multiple access (DS-CDMA), multi-carrier (MC) DS-CDMA, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (OFCDM), and interleaved Frequency Division Multiple Access (IFDMA). Each of these multiple access schemes has strengths and weaknesses in terms of practical implementation and performance for various channel conditions. For example, the frequency domain approaches, such as OFDM and OFCDM, are generally more suitable for more highly-dispersive channels when the mobile access terminal is moving with low to moderate speed. On the other hand, the time domain/code domain approaches, such as DS-CDMA and MC-DS-CDMA, are more robust when the mobile access terminal moves at higher speeds. They are also easier to synchronize, and in many typical conditions, may perform at the same level as or better than OFDM and OFCDM.
Because of the wide range of application and deployment scenarios expected in 4G with bandwidth requirements exceeding of 100 MHz, it is unlikely that a single multiple access technique with fixed bandwidth can well serve all scenarios. Past experience also suggests that lengthy standardization processes eventually lead to a compromise that accommodates multiple solutions. Therefore, it is important to design an air interface in which a mixture of multiple access schemes can be accommodated within an entire wideband channel. Although the ITU's IMT-2000 standard encompasses three different “modes”, namely, UMTS FDD, UMTS TDD and CDMA 2000, they are effectively three distinct multiple access approaches that are very difficult to integrate. Nor does the IMT-2000 standard permit combining frequency domain approaches such as OFDM and OFCDM with time domain/code domain schemes like DS-CDMA.
The technology described in this application provides a unified and flexible signaling method and radio interface that accommodates different multiple access schemes. Each user data unit is associated with one of several different multiple access techniques. Each multiple access technique defines how multiple users access common communications resources and has two key aspects. The first aspect is the processing of the user data unit into suitable discrete samples. The processing may involve operations such as spreading and code-multiplexing in the case of CDMA, the inverse Discrete Fourier Transform in the case of OFDM and OFCDM, or the combination of these and other various operations. The second aspect of a multiple access technique is the assignment of the discrete samples associated with each user data unit into one or more respective discrete signal blocks in the time-frequency plane. The term “discrete” in “discrete signal block” simply means that the signal block can be distinguished in some fashion from other signal blocks. Each discrete signal block also includes a time attribute and a frequency attribute and can be viewed as a radio resource container that contains a processed user data unit's samples. For example, in a traditional TDMA system, each of the multiple users is assigned a time slot and the entire available bandwidth within that time interval. In a traditional FDMA system, on the other hand, each of the multiple users is assigned a frequency band and can communicate in that band at all times.
Discrete signal blocks carrying processed user data units having different associated multiple access techniques are grouped into a time-slot or packet for transmission over a communication channel. In one non-limiting, example application, that communication channel is a radio channel. The processed and grouped user data units may correspond to plural users or to the same user. The discrete time samples in the packet or time-slot are then preferably converted to a continuous time signal by an analog pulse shaping filter before transmission over the radio interface.
The different multiple access techniques may fall into any of the three broad categories: FDMA techniques, TDMA techniques, and CDMA techniques. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, TDMA is an underlying multiple access technique upon which other multiple access techniques build. Example FDMA techniques include OFDM, OFCDM, and Interleaved-FDMA (IFDMA). Example CDMA techniques include DS-CDMA and multi-carrier DS-CDMA.
In one non-limiting, example embodiment, a cyclic prefix may be added to the packet containing the grouped signal blocks before transmission over the communications channel to facilitate receiver processing. Each user data unit associated with a different multiple access technique may be processed into the frequency domain to generate frequency domain samples for most multiple access techniques. In those usual cases, those frequency domain samples are transformed into the time domain to generate discrete time samples. That processing into the frequency domain may be performed using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of appropriate length, using for example a fast Fourier transform (FFT), and transforming into the time domain is performed using an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) of appropriate length, e.g., using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT).
If a condition for the communication changes, e.g., a change in the communication channel or a change in service requested by the user, the multiple access technique associated with one or more of the user data units may be changed in response to the changed condition. This change is easily accommodated by the flexible signaling format in accordance with the present invention.
A receiver receives over the radio interface a continuous signal including a group signal blocks having user data units associated with different associated multiple access techniques. The receiver may “blindly” detect which multiple access technique is associated with each user data unit. Alternatively, part or all of the multiple access technique aspects can be pre-determined during the opening handshake just before the communication is established, as is done in the current generation of cellular systems. Such examples include time slot assignment for each of the multiple users in a TDMA system like GSM and the spreading code assignment in a CDMA system like WCDMA. The partial aspects of a multiple access technique that are not pre-determined have the flexibility of adapting to the changing environment. In this case, the unknown part of the multiple access technique associated with each user data unit may be blindly detected or communicated using control information sent along with each discrete signal block. Another alternative is to associate each user data unit with the unknown aspects of its multiple access technique in control information sent over a separate signaling channel.
Once the discrete signal block assignments of the user data units are determined, the group of discrete signal blocks is filtered and sampled and the appropriate segment extracted. For most multiple access techniques, the discrete samples are discrete time samples which are transformed into frequency domain samples for subsequent processing. The frequency domain samples in the discrete signal blocks associated with each user data unit are processed in accordance with the associated multiple access technique to permit data corresponding to each user data unit to be extracted. For access point type nodes in a radio context, the receiver may employ a wideband receive filter. Alternatively, if the communications node is a mobile access terminal, a narrower, bandpass receive filter tuned to its desired frequency band may be employed.